If you want to grow your business while simultaneously increasing customer loyalty, the chief customer officer (CCO) might just be the silver bullet you are looking for. The CEO is uniquely responsible for shareholder return, the COO for cost-efficiency, the CFO for the company’s financial well-being, the CMO for market awareness, and the EVP of Sales for quarterly revenue. One executive must be held accountable for not only the strength of customer relationships but especially customer value (i.e., the value of a customer to your company as well as your value to the customer). This customer champion must be able to properly weigh customer needs against revenue, cost, and other strategic business drivers. As well, the role of customer champion must be an executive-level position to effectively gain trust in customer and prospect organizations as well as drive change throughout many different divisions.
The chief customer officer, or other similarly titled executive, is uniquely capable of fulfilling this role and of helping your organization achieve the following five objectives:
Grow Revenue
By establishing customer value metrics, the CCO can identify the most valuable customers and help marketing and sales find more prospects just like them.
Increase Customer Profitability
As I’ve written elsewhere, not all customers or prospects are created equal. In one extreme case, researchers found that 20% of a manufacturing firm’s customers generated 220% of profits. Fully 80% of customers were marginally profitable or even unprofitable! With a CCO’s breadth of customer insight, companies can effectively segment customers according to customer value drivers.
Increase Customer Loyalty and Retention
Because of the CCO’s regular interaction with customers, consistent “health measurements,” and early warning mechanisms, this indispensable officer is uniquely capable of identifying customer dissatisfaction and potential for defection.
Develop Sustainable Competitive Advantage
In this age of hyper-competitiveness where any feature or service-based differentiator is easily duplicated, the only truly sustainable competitive advantage is in-depth customer understanding. Under the direction of the CCO, companies that make customer insight actionable and drive customer-centric change throughout the organization will be successful.
Decrease Costs
The CCO, by virtue of his/her position and breadth of involvement with current customers and the marketplace, is uniquely positioned to determine levels of support and attention given to customers according to customer value metrics. As a result, decisions and priorities will more likely maximize customer value to the company.
Your company can reap multiple benefits by establishing the role of chief customer officer. You will be able to maximize the profitability of current and future customers; increase customer loyalty and retention, and ensure long-term success as you develop the in-depth insight into what customers need, want, and are willing to pay for. Incorporating the CCO function leads to longer and more profitable relationships with key customers, which in turn leads to achieving the ultimate goal of increased and more profitable revenues.
